4 Day Turkey Tour: Cappadocia, Ephesus and Pamukkale

First of all, I want to make this review fair in terms of the tour itself. This was a great 4-day tour. Everything was very well organized - the pick-ups were on time and the tour guides were all very friendly, professional and spoke good English. All the sites were fantastic. Other than the first lunch in Ephesus was mediocre, the rest of the breakfasts and lunches were good. The hotels were clean and comfortable. If without the very last experience, I would have rated them 5 stars. Here's the final experience from Cappadocia to the Kayseri Airport that got the points deducted so fast. I was sitting next to the driver at the front and got to observe all he did. Maybe 15 minutes after the pick-up, the young driver got a call and was on the phone for most of the drive. While holding his phone with one hand talking, he was driving with one hand or sometimes with no hands on the driving wheel at all. It was a very windy day, the van full of passengers (13 total) and luggage was swaying from lane to lane. He was on the phone constantly calling in and out. At one point, he was texting while driving. Throughout the 1-hour drive, he at least ran through two red lights. Several times our van was so close to other vehicles that my skin just clenched. Sometimes, he drove slowly and then all of sudden he drove like crazy. This is not an issue of customer service. This is an issue of customer safety. Nobody would want to sit in any vehicles he drives. He should be banned from driving customers at all. If he is not banned, someday some accidents will happen and by then it will be too late. Again, I want to make it clear that this review is not about the tour contents and service, which were good. Safety of customers should be the top priority. This is a constructive criticism that I hope the tour agency takes it very seriously.

Visiting Capadoccia was a great time with our tour guide Gulshen. She spoke very good English, and showed us so much in the area of Goreme. The Flintstones Cave Hotel that was booked for us was absolutely amazing, so quiet and clean and big! The carpet and leather sales areas were less preferred, but both days in Capadoccia were very nice. The clay vendor had the best value and workmanship. The transfer from Kayseri airport was easy, but the transfer to Kayseri airport our original driver forgot us (oops!). A new driver came by to save the day, catching our flight in time. Visiting Ephesus was really nice. The area is in very good condition, along with the Celsius Library. We were transferred to stay two nights in Kusadasi, and the Efe Boutique Hotel we stayed at was in a central, quiet location. The hotel was clean, but would have preferred a shower that was taller (I had to bend down a bit to wash my head at 193cm height). Ephesus was absolutely amazing. The tour guide's English wasn't the easiest to understand, but he knew SO much and explained a lot about the history of Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis, and the House of the Virgin Mary. While it was slightly disappointing to experience another leather and carpet vendor, their quality of workmanship was better. As a side note to the vendors, lower prices are greatly appreciated! They are very overpriced, but nice to look at. Our time at Pamukkale and Hierapolis was good, but the area is very crowded. Expect your feet to hurt a bit if you are trying to walk into the limestone pools for a picture, as footwear is not allowed. Maybe this could be a sales opportunity to sell feet protectors that are approved for use in the pools? The Cleopatra Pools needs to be advertised as such. Our last tour guide Josh/Coskun didn't mention that the pools are the Cleopatra Pools, but the previous guide did. The thermals are nice and hot, a good way to relax in hot weather. An amazing amphitheater is here. Overall, the places were great! All sights were seen with time to spare. The tour guides are all quite knowledgeable and speak reasonably good English. It would be better to have less sales vendors in the tour to sell carpets and leather items, and even better to sell them at reasonable prices. The hotels that were booked were good, all flights were easy, and transfers were greatly appreciated. I would highly recommend people to do this tour in Turkey.

I took the four days tour and was awesome! All the transfers were done on time as per the itinerary and the travel agency was very helpful all the time trough was up whenever I had a question. I receive the tickets an itinerary on time, and the agency book the flight in the balloon as well .All was perfect!! Paragliding in Pamukkale was arranged even I did not book in advance.The tour guides were very friendly and knowledge. Where the best holidays ever!!!! I highly recommend it !!

it was amazing tour! totally worth it. I enjoyed very much every of these 4 days in Turkey. The tour is very well organized and allows you to spend enough time in every destination of the tour. The guides are friendly and give a lot of information. The hotels are nice and greatly located. I highly recommend!

This is a very well planned tour. It covers many important parts of Turkey. We loved it. The hotels were wonderful I got free upgrade in all the hotels, although this is not guaranteed so don't think it is part of the package. The guides are very good. Everyday we started between 9AM to 9:30AM and back to hotel by 5 PM. So we had plenty of time to relax for the next day. In short a very well planned tour package.

The 4 day tour was all together a well planned trip. For the tour in Ephesus, there was no need to include the Artemis monument as it was just a piece of column. I took the hot air balloon and it was awesome. I highly recommend it.

What an excellent tour with so much fitted in. Our balloon ride was unfortunately cancelled due to bad weather but everything else ran like clockwork. Not the fault of the organisers but there was lots of time spent travelling and waiting around, just a neccasary evil to allow the tour to cover so much in so little time.